Most of us might be having a hard time adapting to the new sets of playable cards especially the newly-released Chaos Legion set.
With these changes in the sets of playable cards, there are also significant changes in the meta. From being a tanky, sustain-type lineups, the earth element is now focused on magic-dominant lineups. Fire element is now more reliable in terms of having a high melee damage output. Water element, known to be the element of magic-type monsters, is turning into a good source of armor-focused, sustain-type lineups. Life element is dominating as a burst-type lineup with its high range-damage monsters. And death element maintains its identity as an effective counter-lineup against magic lineups.
With that being said, I would like to share to you the cards the I think are underrated and underappreciated but could be effective in the current meta in Bronze league.
EARTH ELEMENT
Let's start with one of my all-time favorite monster card in Splinterlands, the Mushroom Seer. You might hate it when both you and your opponent use magic-type earth lineups during a match with 28+ mana pool. Mushroom Seer's SILENCE ability gives you the advantage of decreasing your opponent's magic attack by 1 for each magic-type monster in his lineup. Mushroom Seer is a 5-mana monster card with 2 magic attack, 1 speed, and 3 health. Having this card in 4th o 5th position and Unicorn Mustang in 1st position will make your opponents scratch their head.
FIRE ELEMENT
Fire element monsters are known to be a burst-type monsters and have high melee attack output, but are always squishy because of their low health. Since a lot of players in lower league loves using magic-type lineups, there is this one fire monster card from chaos legion that I think will be an effective tanker esp. against magic-type lineups - Tusk The Wide. For only 6 mana, Tusk The Wide gives you 1 melee attack, 1 speed, and a whooping 12 health. Not only that,but it also provides your fire lineup a great defense against magic-type lineups because of its ability called Void, which reduces the magic damage of each magic monsters of your opponent by 1. Your sneaky and opportunistic fire monsters can now have enough time to do burst melee damage at the backline of your opponents.
WATER ELEMENT
You might encounter tanky water lineups in matches with 18+ mana pool. Playing against this type of lineup is really frustrating because your melee and range damages are only being defended by the shield provided by Kelya Frendul. On the other hand, this lineup is also not very effective in terms of dealing melee or range damage.
To give this lineup a little twist, I suggest using Torhilo The Frozen. This 9-mana water monster provides 4 melee attack, 1 speed, 4 shield, and 8 health. This is also a reliable tank against magic-type lineups with its Void ability.
Another monster card that I love using is the Demented Shark. This 6-mana water monster gives you 2 melee attack, 2 speed, 1 shield, and 6 health. You might be wondering why I said 2 melee damage. Yes, it only has 1 melee attack, but once you use this monster, each melee monster in your lineup, including Demented Shark, will receive additional 1 melee attack because of its ability called Inspire. It's up to you where you place this card, but I usually place it in the 2nd or 3rd position as backup tank if the main tank is eliminated.
DEATH ELEMENT
Death summoners' expertise is to try to defend and sustain damage from their opponents and do little damages every round. Death lineups require more rounds to be able to last long in a match and defeat the opponent.
Personally, I hate using death lineups in matches. I only use it when my daily quest is to win 5 games with death summoner.
However, there are some instances that death lineup can win you a game 90% of the time. For example, a lineup of Thaddius Brood (summoner), Cursed Windeku (tank), and Undead Badger is effective in 12-mana matches. For 13-mana matches, You can add either Carrion Shade or Chaos Agent, or replace Undead Badger with Death Elemental.
Another Death monster card that could be a key piece in certain matches is the Undead Priest. This is a 2-mana card with no attack, 1 speed, and 3 health. The good thing about this card is that it has the Weaken ability that decrease the health of each of your opponent monster by 1.
There's really nothing much to do with death lineup especially in lower leagues, but it can still be effective in specific situations.
LIFE ELEMENT
Most players might be obsessed with magic lineups in matches with 99-mana pool. Well, I can't blame them since magic damage can easily burn the health of opponent's monsters. But players forgot how effective life lineups are in 99-mana pool matches.
One of the underrated and underappreciated summoners is Lorna Shine. This 3-mana summoner card grants Divine Shield to all units in your lineup. This ability lets your unit ignore the first damage (melee, magic, or range) it receives.
Second is Clay Golem. This 6-mana card has 3 melee attack, 1 speed, and 7 health, and it's Void ability decreases the magic damage it receives by 1.
Another card that I love using with Lorna Shine is Truthspeaker. It has the Protect ability that grants +2 shield to each unit in your lineup. This is very effective against melee and range attacks. This 2-mana card has 2 speed and 1 health, and should be placed either in 2nd or 3rd position.
Your life lineup should now be flexible with these 3 cards. I usually use the last 3 spots for monsters with Sneak or Opportunist ability to do melee attack damages at the backline of my opponent.
There are still a few cards out there that I might have missed, but these are the ones that I think beginners should use in order to win games in Bronze league and climb up to higher leagues.
That's all for now. I will make another piece for the Dragon element since this one is a bit tricky to use for beginners.